engagement / engaging students

Heads up Jony Ive! You need to see this brilliant concept for the Apple TV! Superb work by Sam Beckett!

On 05/31/2013, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, analytics, Apple, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, attention, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, convergence, cost of getting a degree, creativity, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, disruption, e-books, e-publishing related items (EPUB and more), education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, future of higher education, game-changing environment, Google, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), IBM, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interaction design, interactivity, interface design, internet, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning spaces, lifelong learning, love of learning, machine-to-machine communications, media/film, Microsoft, mirroring and/or multiple devices, mobile learning, mobile technologies, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, more voice more choice more control, multi-touch, multimedia, Near Field Communication (NFC), New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, new business models, new media literacies, online learning, online media, online tutoring, personalized/customized learning, platforms, second screen apps, simulations, smart classrooms, smart/connected TV, social learning / networks, social media, streams of content, tablets, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, technology (general), telepresence, television, transmedia, trends, ubiquitous learning, user experience (UX), user interface design, using teams, videoconferencing, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, webinars, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Now picture this from the educational standpoint — and what MOOCs could morph into. The foundation for some serious learning power (from the living room) seems to be developing!

Streams of content/learning channels/cloud-based applications that each of us can create and make available.

Voice recognition, learning analytics, machine-to-machine communications, transmedia and more! Wow!

A solid animation/website of 10 expectations from today’s student — from LeavingToLearn.org

On 05/22/2013, in engagement / engaging students, expectations, experimentation, love of learning, motivation, passions, personalized/customized learning, play, real-world assignments, reinvent, relationships, staying relevant, student-related, by Daniel Christian

Tagged with: creativity • customized learning • engagement • experimentation • Keeping students engaged • more choice more control • motivation • passions • personalized learning • play • real-world assignments • reinvent • staying relevant • student expectations

Game changers + kids [huffingtonpost.com]

On 05/21/2013, in creativity, engagement / engaging students, entrepreneurship, game-changing environment, innovation, motivation, by Daniel Christian

Game changers + kids — from live.huffingtonpost.com

Excerpt:

What happens when you bring business innovators together with today’s youth? Choose2Matter is about to find out. We talk to the people behind Choose2Matter and leaders of the business world about the power of the idea that everyone matters.

Also see:

Tagged with: creativity • engagement • entrepreneurship • game-changing environment • innovation • K-12 • love of learning • motivation • passions

Michigan district fires all teachers, closes every school [Parker]

On 05/15/2013, in Daniel S. Christian, engagement / engaging students, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, love of learning, Michigan, online learning, society, United States, by Daniel Christian

Michigan district fires all teachers, closes every school — from takepart.com by Suzi Parker
A funding crisis caused the Buena Vista School District to close its schools for the rest of the year—and perhaps permanently.

From DSC:
This is not right.

If the State of Michigan can’t resolve this…
I hope that a corporation or two — or a major philanthropist or two — steps in here to insure that all these students have Internet access. Then provide/allow these students to go online. Let these students take any class that they want to — and help them enjoy learning as much as possible. They will learn things along the way — without even knowing that they are learning (along the lines of what Sugata Mitra has been saying).

Are there issues with this idea? You bet. I can think of several off the top of my head:

Parents out at work, kids at home…
Online learning works best with disciplined students…
The students may take courses that are not STEM-related
(However, if they are interested in another discipline or topic, these things could be brought into their learning along the way.)
The students may not take courses related to the Common Core standards
(However, this is not a big concern for me; as pounding everyone into a similar “mold” goes against the reality that each of us is different. We each have different gifts, skills, abilities, strengths, weaknesses, passions, interests, and preferences.)

But we’ve let these kids down — and make no mistake, we will all pay the price for this type of thing — one way or another. We need to help these kids discover the joy of learning…before it’s too late.

Tagged with: budgetary • Daniel S. Christian • education • K-12 • Keeping students engaged • learning ecosystem • learning from the living [class] room • love of learning • Michigan • online learning • society • United States

Interactive whiteboards are front and center in college classrooms [edtechmagazine.com]

On 05/13/2013, in A/V -- audio/visual, collaboration, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, digital video, education technology, engagement / engaging students, tools, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Interactive whiteboards are front and center in college classrooms — from edtechmagazine.com
A look at whiteboards at New York’s Touro College.

From DSC:
We currently have 3 types of Interactive WhiteBoards (IWB’s) on our campus: Epson BrightLinks, SMART Boards, and/or an Eno Board from PolyVision.

However, the idea of using mobile interactive whiteboards is becoming increasingly popular — i.e. being able to annotate on an iPad, for example, and having everyone in the class see these annotations. I’ve seen some K-12 folks use Apple TV for this type of thing, but Apple’s multi-cast wireless protocol doesn’t work as well for us in a campus environment. I’ve also seen/heard of people using one of the following solutions listed below as well. (I wish I had more time to check each of them out, but I’ll simply list them for you here.)

AirServer
Doceri Desktop
“With built-in remote desktop control you can access and annotate over files resident on your Windows PC or Mac and present them to your classroom or audience when a projector is connected.”
Splashtop Whiteboard
“This app allows me to not only control my computer remotely but I am able to see my entire desktop on my iPad and then mark up over ANY text or video!”
ExplainEverything.com
Nearpod.com
Doodlecastpro.com
Educreations
Scribbeo
“Annotate video & images directly on screen” http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/scribbeo/id496099951?mt=8
Coach’s Eye
“Annotate your video using lines, arrows, circles, squares and freehand tools.” http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/coachs-eye/id472006138?mt=8
Ink2Go
“You can easily write on top of any other application that is currently active on the desktop, even on a running video.” http://ink2.eyepowergames.com/

Tagged with: A/V • collaboration • Daniel S. Christian • digital learning • digital video • educational technology • engagement • interactivity • Keeping students engaged • tools • vendors • Wireless

Also, from Steve Wheeler’s Are you a meerkat or an ostrich?

Etienne Wenger recently declared: ‘If any institutions are going to help learners with the real challenges they face…(they) will have to shift their focus from imparting curriculum to supporting the negotiation of productive identities through landscapes of practice’ (Wenger, 2010).

We live in uncertain times, where we cannot be sure how the economy is going to perform today, let alone predict what kind of jobs there will be for students when they graduate in a few years time. How can we prepare students for a world of work that doesn’t yet exist? How can we help learners to ready themselves for employment that is shifting like the sand, and where many of the jobs they will be applying for when they leave university probably don’t exist yet? It’s a conundrum many faculty and lecturers are wrestling with, and one which many others are ignoring in the hope that the problem will simply go away. Whether we are meerkats, looking out and anticipating the challenges, or ostriches burying our heads in the sand, the challenge remains, and it is growing stronger.

Also see:

The Nature of the Future: The Socialstructed World — from nextberlin.eu by Marina Gorbis, Institute for the Future
Marina Gorbis, Executive Director of the Institute for the Future (iftf.org) discussed the evolution of communication and its consequences at NEXT13. She analyzed the perks and challenges of the new relationship-driven or “socialstructed” economy, stating that “humans and technology will team up”. Her new book ‘The Nature of the Future: Dispatches from the Socialstructed World’ was published in early 2013. Watch her inspiring talk on April 23, 2013 at NEXT13.

From DSC:
My best take on this at this point:

Give students more choice, more control of their learning
Help them discover their gifts, abilities, talents, passions
Help them develop their gifts, abilities, talents, passions
Provide content in as many ways as possible — and let the students work with what they prefer to work with
Implement story, emotion, creativity, and play as much as possible (providing plenty of chances for them to create what they want to create)
Utilize cross-disciplinary assignments and teams
Integrate real-world assignments/projects into the mix
Help them develop their own businesses while they are still in school — coach them along, provide mentors, relevant blogs/websites, etc.
Guide them as they create/develop their own “textbooks” and/or streams of content

Tagged with: adjunct faculty • change • curriculum • customized learning • dangers of the status quo • Daniel S. Christian • education reform • engaging students • future • future of higher education • hearts -- matters of the heart • higher education • homeschooling/homeschoolers • K-12 • Keeping students engaged • learning ecosystem • more choice more control • motivation • passions • personalized learning • real-world assignments • reinvent • staying relevant • student-related • teachers • teaching & learning

The folks needed to create the next generation of learning: Computers can’t touch this. [Christian]

On 05/03/2013, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, accessibility / UDL, adjunct faculty, analytics, animation, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Augmented Reality (AR), Bring your own device (BYOD), collaboration, content development, aggregation, repositories, creativity, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, design, digital audio, digital learning, digital photography, digital storytelling, digital video, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, entrepreneurship, experimentation, faculty, global / globalization, graphics, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interaction design, interactivity, interface design, internet, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, machine-to-machine communications, mobile learning, mobile technologies, multimedia, music, Near Field Communication (NFC), new media literacies, online learning, online media, online tutoring, participation, personalized/customized learning, photography, play, reinvent, research, second screen apps, simulations, smart/connected TV, social learning / networks, social media, society, story, storytelling, streams of content, teachers, telepresence, television, transmedia, trends, user experience (UX), user interface design, using teams, videoconferencing, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, web design and production, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
What we need is a major hackathon — or an organization with deep pockets — that can bring together folks from a variety of disciplines including:

Subject Matter Experts
Instructional Designers
Cognitive Psychologists
Computer Scientists and/or those exerienced with learning analytics/data mining, Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Those gifted in film/media/videography/photography
Great storytellers/writers (including writing for transmedia-based learning experiences)
Folks who can create engaging, educational games
Designers
- Web
- Graphic
- Interface
- User experience
- User interaction
- Those gifted in creating multimedia-based content
Musicians
Human Computer Interaction (HCI) experts
Mobile learning experts
Those knowledgeable with second screens/M2M communications
Animators
Illustrators
Social media experts
Accessibility experts
Researchers
Those gifted in creating augmented reality-based apps
Legal/copyright experts
& others

We need for these specialists to collaborate in order to create the next generation of learning. Anyone who can bring these skillsets together and experiment with creating materials will have significantly contributed something to the current generations and to future generations!

And, in the words of M.C. Hammer, computers “can’t touch this!” Why? Because “learning is messy!”

What fields did I miss?
Please leave your thoughts and
feedback in the comments section.

In other words, begin with… [EdTechTeacher.org]

On 05/02/2013, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, assessment, blogs / blogging / vlogging, Bring your own device (BYOD), cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, creativity, design, digital audio, digital learning, digital photography, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, e-books, e-publishing related items (EPUB and more), e-readers, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, K-12 related, multi-touch, multimedia, new media literacies, online media, presentations, productivity / tips and tricks, videoconferencing, web-based collaboration, writing, by Daniel Christian

Beyond the Page: Transmedia Storytelling — from macict.edu.au by Cathie Howe

Below are some excerpted slides from:
Rethinking literacy through transmedia storytelling final from Cathie Howe and Katy Lumkin

From DSC:
Transmedia storytelling ties in very nicely with my thoughts re: Learning from the Living [Class] Room!

Excerpts from transmedia storytelling presentation by Gianluca Fiorelli

On 04/25/2013, in career development, communications, computer science, creativity, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital photography, digital storytelling, digital video, e-books, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, entrepreneurship, experimentation, human-computer interaction (HCI), immersion, informal learning, innovation, interactivity, internet, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, media/film, multimedia, new business models, new media literacies, online media, participation, platforms, play, programming, social media, story, storytelling, strategy, streams of content, transmedia, trends, user experience (UX), Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, by Daniel Christian

Notes from DSC:

Some of the material in this presentation or the website may not be appropriate for a younger audience.
Notice how many potential jobs/roles/positions/skillsets can be explored here!

From DSC:
The word Bible is here not quite I think of as the Bible…but you’ll get the point if you review Gianluca’s presentation.
.

Questions from DSC:

What opportunities might be presented by this type of trend within the worlds of education/training? (i.e. within K-12, higher ed, the corporate world)
What sorts of streams of contents could be created for educational/training-related purposes?
What sorts of open doors are now present within the world of communications? For a church, a school, a college, a business?
How can we incorporate the use of story more effectively in our teaching and learning environments? (If we could do this, we could greatly increase our students’ ROI.)

I love this slide which is simply entitled, “Tinkering” [from Fredric Landqvist’s slideshare on Learning Spaces]

On 04/24/2013, in active learning, collaboration, creativity, Daniel S. Christian, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, learning ecosystem, learning spaces, love of learning, motivation, play, project-based learning, by Daniel Christian

Augmented reality is going mobile — and coming to a classroom near you [Demski]

On 04/23/2013, in Augmented Reality (AR), education technology, engagement / engaging students, K-12 related, mobile learning, mobile technologies, by Daniel Christian

Augmented reality is going mobile–and coming to a classroom near you — from thejournal.com by Jennifer Demski

This article, with an exclusive video interview,
originally appeared in T.H.E. Journal’s April 2013 digital edition.

Tagged with: augmented reality • educational technology • engagement • K-12 • Mobile learning • mobile technology

BII REPORT: Here’s why the “second screen” industry is set to explode — BusinessInsider.com

On 04/19/2013, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, analytics, animation, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Bring your own device (BYOD), cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, convergence, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, disruption, distance education, e-books, e-publishing related items (EPUB and more), e-readers, education, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, entrepreneurship, experimentation, flipping -- inverted learning, game-changing environment, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interactivity, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, lifelong learning, machine-to-machine communications, mirroring and/or multiple devices, mobile learning, mobile technologies, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, more voice more choice more control, multi-touch, multimedia, Near Field Communication (NFC), New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, new business models, online learning, online media, online tutoring, personalized/customized learning, second screen apps, smart/connected TV, social learning / networks, social media, storytelling, streams of content, student-related, technologies for your home, television, transmedia, trends, ubiquitous learning, videoconferencing, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, webinars, by Daniel Christian

BII REPORT: Here’s why the “second screen” industry is set to explode — BusinessInsider.com

Excerpt:

Here’s why the second screen industry will ultimately succeed:

Usage is growing rapidly
And mass acceptance isn’t even necessary
Second screen isn’t really a new activity
Second screen apps and sites are bridges

From DSC:
As this article alludes to, I wouldn’t rule the living room out in terms of where interactive, multimedia-based, educationally-related, second screen-based applications will turn up (apps backed up by data mining, AI, and opportunities for social learning). This area is poised for some serious growth.

Doodle 3D printer accessory enables 3D printing of drawings [Darell]

On 04/18/2013, in 3D, creativity, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, K-12 related, by Daniel Christian

Doodle 3D printer accessory enables 3D printing of drawings — from bitrebels.com by Richard Darell

Tagged with: 3D • creativity • engagement • experimentation

My reflections on “MOOCs of Hazard” – a well-thought out, balanced article by Andrew Delbanco

On 04/10/2013, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, analytics, animation, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Bring your own device (BYOD), cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, computer science, consortiums, content development, aggregation, repositories, convergence, cost of getting a degree, creativity, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, design, digital learning, digital storytelling, disruption, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interaction design, interactivity, interface design, internet, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, machine-to-machine communications, media/film, mirroring and/or multiple devices, mobile learning, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, multi-touch, multimedia, Near Field Communication (NFC), New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, new media literacies, online learning, online tutoring, personalized/customized learning, programming, real-world assignments, reinvent, second screen apps, simulations, smart/connected TV, social learning / networks, storytelling, streams of content, user experience (UX), user interface design, using teams, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, by Daniel Christian

From DSC: Below are my reflections on MOOCs of Hazard — from newrepublic.com by Andrew Delbanco — who asks: Will online education dampen the college experience? Yes. Will it be worth it? Well…

.
While I’m not sure that I agree with the idea that online education will dampen the college experience — and while I could point to some amazing capabilities that online education brings to the table in terms of true global exchanges — I’ll instead focus my comments on the following items:

1) Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are recent experiments — ones that will continue to change/morph into something else.
They are half-baked at best, but they should not be taken lightly. Christensen, Horn, Johnson are spot on with their theories of disruption here, especially as they relate to innovations occurring within the virtual/digital realm. For example, the technologies behind IBM’s Watson could be mixed into the list of ingredients that will be used to develop MOOCs in the future. It would be a very powerful, effective MOOC indeed if you could get the following parties/functionalities to the table:

IBM — to provide Watson like auto-curation/filtering capabilities, artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, as well as data mining/learning analytics expertise, joined by
Several highly-creative firms from the film/media/novel/storytelling industry, who would be further joined by
Experts from Human Computer Interaction (HCI)/user interface/user experience design teams, who would be further joined by
Programmers and interaction specialists from educational gaming endeavors (and from those who can design simulations), joined by
Instructional designers, joined by
The appropriate Subject Matter Experts who can be reached by the students as necessary, joined by
Those skilled in research and library services, joined by
Legal experts to assist with copyright issues, joined by
Other specialists in mobile learning, 3D, web development, database administration, animation, graphic design, musicians, etc.

It won’t be long before this type of powerful team gets pulled together — from some organizations(s) with deep pockets — and the content is interacted with and presented to us within our living rooms via connected/Smart TVs and via second screen devices/applications.

2) The benefits of MOOCs

For colleges/universities:
- MOOCs offer some serious marketing horsepower (rather than sound pedagogical tools, at this point in time at least)
- They are forcing higher ed to become much more innovative
- They provide great opportunities to build one’s personalized learning networks, as they bring forth those colleagues who are interested in topic A, B, or C
- They move us closer to team-based content creation and delivery
  .
For students:
- They offer a much less expensive option to go exploring disciplines for themselves…to see if they enjoy (and/or are gifted in) topic A, B or C
- They provide great opportunities to build one’s personalized learning networks, as they bring forth those colleagues who are interested in topic A, B, or C
- They provide a chance to see what it’s like to learn about something in a digital/virtual manner

3) The drawbacks of MOOCs:

MOOCs are not nearly the same thing as what has come to be known as “online learning” — at least in the higher ed industry. MOOCs do not yet offer what more “traditional” (can I say that?) online learning provides: Far more support and pedagogical/instructional design, instructor presence and dialog, student academic support services, advising, more student-to-student and student-to-faculty interaction, etc.
.
MOOCs are like drinking from a firehose — there are too many blogs/RSS feeds, twitter feeds, websites, and other resources to review.

4) It would be wise for all of us to be involved with such experiments and have at least a subset of one’s college or university become much more nimble/responsive.

Also see:

Delbanco’s interview in The Hedgehog Review

Tagged with: 1:1 • 21st century • 24x7x365 • A/V • adjunct faculty • AI • analytics • Bring your own device (BYOD) • cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related • computer science • creativity • cross-disciplinary assignments • customized learning • Daniel S. Christian • data mining • design • digital storytelling • faculty • graphic design • instructional design • interaction design • interface design • Learning Agents • learning from the living [class] room • Media/film • mirroring / multiple devices • multi-touch • multimedia • online learning • online tutoring • personalized learning • programming • second screen apps • simulations • Smart/Connected TV • Using teams • vendors • virtual reality / worlds / learning • virtual tutoring • visual design • Walmart of Education • web design

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Learning Ecosystems

Game changers + kids [huffingtonpost.com]

Interactive whiteboards are front and center in college classrooms [edtechmagazine.com]

I love this slide which is simply entitled, “Tinkering” [from Fredric Landqvist’s slideshare on Learning Spaces]

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